Galrantior
General information Modern Galrantior (MG; klimsanyor ëg rekli) is the lingua franca of the Klimsan region on the Uxtratana Landmass in Rahtouri. It is essentially an officialized creole of Latter-Hegemony Drulaktior (LHD) and Republic Nirasoi that formed gradually over time as the Drulaktor Galrants continued to make contact with the Niras Galrants. Both of the languages that make up Modern Galrantior are distinctly different, yet both can trace their roots back to the oldest known Galrant language, Ancient Klimsan. This means that Modern Galrantior is a rejoining of two very different tongues that were once one in the same. Modern Galrantior is the language used for administration and education in the Klimsan region. Many residents of Klimsan either state MG as their native tongue or state it as their second language. Notably, this excludes the Shaneik Diaspora of Alrorei; the residents of which continue to speak Galreic, itself a creole of LHD and Standard Shaneic. MG is an agglutinative language, combining words to form many single words expressing an idea. MG is also a tonal language, with words and phrases being altered by using a specific tone. Phonology Galrantior phonology can be difficult to describe since Galrants are not human and thus their languages (generally) do not follow human-like trends. To attempt to reconstruct MG or older Galrant languages utilizing knowledge of established human phonology shifts is about as useful as attempting to parse Finnish with Japanese grammatical features. One thing that is noteworthy is Galrantior's treatment of consonants vs vowels. Vowels are considered to be far more important than consonants in Galrantior (although consonants are obviously still very important), and so the vowels will be much more pronounced in speech. Another feature one may recognize is that Galrantior has a large phonemic inventory; this is due to the fact that Galrants are very similar to bats and rely very much on vocal communication, causing a diverse inventory to develop. Its prosody is somewhere between tone-timed and stress-timed. Tones are obviously expected to be adhered to, and focal vowels (probably the most prominent of the tones) are meant to have stress applied to them (in some cases, it's the difference between two completely unrelated words), but the prosody can become more stress-timed depending on the form being spoken or the mental state of the speaker. (i.e. If the speaker is distressed, more stress can be applied in places where it normally wouldn't) Consonants Vowels *Vowels marked with an asterisk (*) are only present in some dialects. *(!) i is very rare. It is only spoken when a /y/ is followed by a consonant (/y/ is usually pronounced as j)--since /y/ is almost always the second consonant to a consonant cluster and consonant clusters rarely (if ever) exceed two consonants in Galrantior, i is a very rare speech sound in the language. *(!!) The schwa ə is not common, generally used only when a vowel needs to be added between two consonants. Galrantior has the following vowels when transcribed to Latin: *'a' (IPA: ɑ; æ in some dialects) *'å' (IPA: ɔ) *'e' (IPA: ɛ) *'ę' (dipthong; IPA: ɛɪ) *'ø' (IPA: ø or ʊ in Iksatyor) *'ə' (IPA: ə) (not common) *'i' (IPA: ɪ) *'æ' (dipthong; IPA: ɑɪ) *'o' (IPA: o̞) *'u' (IPA: u; also serves as w if a vowel follows unless the /u/ is a focal vowel /ü/) *'y' (IPA: i if a consonant follows or j if a vowel follows) Alphabet The Modern Galrantior alphabet (known amongst Galrants as klimçäʒe) is actually an abugida, containing over 300 basic glyphs to represent various fusions of consonants and vowels as well as the consonants and vowels themselves, and dozens more to represent the various tones and other mutations. Most combination glyphs are indicative of the two glyphs being combined, i.e. one can spot "ma" because the fused glyph looks like the glyphs for "m" and "a", respectively. The standard procedure for writing in Modern Galrantior is to first write out the vowels and then the consonants over top of them. All vowels are written as horizontal lines with a few different additional strokes used to differentiate the vowels; writing a vowel higher or lower than the baseline indicates tone, writing a vowel as arching or dipping indicates those tones, and writing a vowel vertically indicates being a focal vowel. Calligraphically, the klimçäʒe is rather simple, being largely comprised of various simple strokes; this is because Galrants generally write with their fingers as holding a writing utensil is difficult for them (since they only have three fingers to a hand). The klimçäʒe can be written with or without spaces; the Galrants leave it to preference since the language can be read either way. Notably, although the klimçäʒe is technically written left-to-right, it is customary to start writing from the bottom of a canvas upwards, and then moving left to right, with the two "lines" being separated by a well-defined "anchor" of sorts, usually a circle or some other basic shape. When transcribed to Latin letters, Galrantior makes use of the following: a å c* ç d e ę ø ə f g h i æ j k l m n ŋ o p q r s t ð þ u v x y z ʒ */c/ is used to represent tʃ (signified in English with "ch"). */ç/ is used to represent what is best described as a sharp s sound, sounding more like a hiss than a normal s would. To imitate it, one must pronounce a regular s and then move their tongue forward until it presses against their front teeth; the sound will then be made. (An IPA equivalent could not be found.) */ę/ is used to represent ɛɪ (as found in English s'''a'ne'') */x/ is a stand-in for [ ʃ ] */q/ is a stand-in for kx. It is not very commonly used, mostly reserved for direct loanwords from Rahtourior (of which there are few). Plus diaereses, acutes, graves, carons, macrons, circumflexes, and underlines for the vowels depending on tone. An example of written Galrantior can be found under Example Text. Phonotactics Grammar As Galrants are not human, the grammar of Modern Galrantior is very different from that of any human language (although it almost certainly shares coincidental similarities with some). Although the grammar of MG is not as much of a headache as the grammar of Modern Rekualn, for example, there are countless barriers causing difficulty in translating between MG and English. Many messages that require only a few words or combinations to convey in MG can require full sentences to convey the exact same message in English, and vice versa. Sociolinguistic Features MG is a very widespread language, being spoken across the entire region of Klimsan (the most populated region in Rahtouri). Despite this, it has a number of rules to keep in mind before you go constructing sentences. These guidelines are more sociolinguistic than linguistic in that it is entirely possible (from a linguistic standpoint) to disobey each and every single guideline listed here, but to do so may cause confusion or send a mixed or otherwise incorrect message. *The most noteworthy of these guidelines is the "no ambiguity rule" (called irälørenkyökim rålsïka, or "you are not permitted to speak with no reference"). This guideline is there to force speakers and writers to be very explicit in what they are referring to when they employ otherwise ambiguous pronouns. This mostly applies to MG's equivalents to "it" (na) and "this/that" (tax). In short, you cannot just say "It stole the fruit". You will need to either specify what "it" refers to beforehand in a separate float clause (unless the identity of "it" was specified earlier in the conversation) or, preferably, remove the need for "it" by making the fruit the subject, turning the conjoined word transitive (explained below), and utilizing the "caused by" adposition before giving the explicit identity of "it" as the object. The result would be closer to "(The) fruit was stolen by the animal." This is clearly a hindrance to maintaining active voice, but in Galrant culture, passive voice and active voice are not distinguished. *MG's genders (explained in detail in Gender) are not necessarily ''set-in-stone, meaning you ''can ''refer to an idea as organic and a body part as abstract, but the result won't make much sense. It is generally accepted that all individual things have at least one gender that the thing inherently does not belong to. Word Order The subject and verb along with any conjugations and verb tenses and/or declensions are combined and placed at the beginning of the sentence or clause (arranged like verbconjugation or noundeclensiontense), while the object is usually placed elsewhere in the sentence depending on the form being spoken, with any applicable prepositions being applied immediately before the object. Galrantior thus doesn't really abide by the standard orders of subject, verb, and object. Here is a demonstration of a usual English sentence transposed into Galrantior word order: ENGLISH: The monster viciously ate its prey. GALRANTIOR: Eat•monster•ed (to)•prey•its with•viciousness. Pronoun Conjugations Pronouns are notable in that most are whittled down to a single phoneme when indicating them in the aforementioned subject-verb combination. For example, to say "I walk." you'd say "Norstå.", with /å/ being the self-referential pronoun. The word for "I/me/myself" in Galrantior is traditionally /ce/ ("tʃe") but due to the usage of combining the verb to the pronoun conjugation it, along with other pronouns, is rarely spoken as the subject. /ce/ is also used as a word part for the Galrantior word for "please" (/íce/, roughly "for me"). The following lists the various pronoun conjugations in Galrantior, combining the pronoun with the verb "fly" ("guþel") and assuming a present tense: *'I''' fly. --> Guþel'å'. *'You' fly. --> Guþel'ø'. *'You (plural)' fly. --> Guþel'øren'. (essentially pluralizing /guþelø/ using the organic gender) *'You and I' fly. --> Guþel'ę'. *'We' fly. --> Guþel'æ'. *'He/she' flies. --> Guþel'ül'. **Although the majority of verbs in Galrantior end with /l/ or some other consonant, some do not. In such a case, one would add /-kúl/, with a rising tone on the /u/ instead of the usual focal vowel tone. He/she sleeps. --> Gyata'kúl'. **"It" is treated a bit differently than "he" or "she" when it comes to conjugation. Instead of adding /-ül/, one adds /-na/. It flies. --> Guþel'na'. *'They' fly. --> Guþel'ren'. (basically, pluralize the verb according to the gender of "they"; see gender below) It should be noted that normal nouns are never changed when combined with a verb, so to say "The animal walks" you'd say "Norstgerülsu". Verb Tenses Galrantior has three tiers of verb tenses: primary, secondary, and tertiary. The tiers can stack by hierarchy but primaries can never intersect, i.e. a conjoined word can have only one primary, up to three secondary, and up to three tertiary tenses applied to it--since the desiderative and necessitative are mutually exclusive. (It is extremely rare that all seven tenses can be applied, given the situational nature of some of them) There are ten primary tenses, three secondary tenses, and four tertiary tenses. The primary tenses are used mostly for expressing time and ability; the secondary and tertiary tenses are mostly used for expressing moods. PRIMARY *Past *Past reminiscent (should have/would have) *Present concurrent (happening right now/in the process of) *Present constant (for describing an action that the subject performs on a regular basis) *Future *Future potential (should/would) *Request *Permissive (unless stated otherwise in the sentence if the transitive tense was used or the adposition is /ò/, the speaker is assumed to be the one giving permission) *Capability *Imperative (see Permissive) For the secondary and tertiary tenses, they will be listed in the order that they will come in. For example, a conjoined word with seven tenses will appear like "VERB-(pro)noun-PRIM-Tra-Att-Hyp-Des/Nec-Apo-Neg" minus the hyphens. SECONDARY *Transitive (it is assumed that the verb in the conjoined word is intransitive unless this is applied; it's the difference between "I hit" and "I was hit") *Attempt *Hypothetical TERTIARY *Desiderative *Necessitative (cannot overlap with desiderative) *Apologetic *Negative Verb tense indicators come at the very end of the subject-verb conjoined word, after the noun or pronoun declension, making it the last part of said word. When an object is a direct object (when the action of the conjoined word is directed at the object) there will be no usage of "the". ("The" is still used when the action is being done with the object, i.e. "I went with the person") When an abstract noun serves as the object, an action cannot be directed at it. Instead of deleting "the" like you would with an organic or inorganic noun and adding /á/ to the beginning of the object, you include "the" (/kon/, in this case) and add the word "si" (a preposition meaning "not directed at anything") before the object, separating "si" and the object with a space unlike you would do with an organic or inorganic noun. (For more information on Galrantior's noun genders, see the Genders section below) *'Past '- append "-te" to the end of the combined word. **I killed the animal. --> killed animal. --> Kill•I•(past) at)•animal. --> Giuel•å•te (á)•gerülsu. --> Giuelå'te' ágerülsu. *'Past reminiscent' - append "-tâj" (should have) or "-tûj" (would have) to the end of the combined word. **I should have left my brood. --> should have left brood. --> have) from•brood•my. --> Gèl•å•tâj à•higrëʃ•gå. --> Gèlå'tâj' àhigrëxgå. *'Present' concurrent '- append "-se" to the end of the combined word. **They are fighting the government. --> are fighting the government. --> con.) (with)•government. --> Iktael•ren•se ral•kïvne. --> Iktaelren'se kon ralkïvne. ***Because the action is being directed with the object instead of at the object, the abstract-gendered /kon/ ("the") is placed between the conjoined word and the object. *'Present constant' - append "-vē" to the end of the combined word. Because this example is long, each process is given its own line: **I fly on a regular basis so that traveling between cities is much easier. **fly (on a regular basis) that travel between cities much easier. **Fly•I•(constant) (at)•city•(pl.) between easy•more. **Guþel•å•vē á•klas•id ïg gùtyëras•é. **Guþelå'vē' ínäralåzüŋ áklasid ïg gùtyërasé. *'Future '- append "-ni" to the end of the combined word. **You and I are going to visit the doctor. --> [You and I are going to will visit] doctor. --> and I•(future) at)•doctor. --> Yäsuil•ei•ni á•kolipra. --> Yäsuilę'ni' ákolipra. *'Future potential '- append "-tâv" (should) or "-tûv" (would) to the end of the combined word. Used primarily for suggestion or, as the term states, potentiality. **You should sign up for the military. --> [You should sign up for join] military. --> Join•you•(should) (no direction) military. --> Srénkuäl•ø•tâv si lokástuë. --> Srénkuälø'tâv' kon si lokástuë. *'Precative '- append "-klä" to the end of the combined word. **Can you all fly from Kalisakr to Alrorei for me? --> you all fly Kalisakr Alrorei me? --> Fly•you(plural)•can away)•Kalisakr at)•Alrorei to the benefit of)•me? --> Guþel•øren•klä à•kalisakr á•alrorei í•ce? --> Guþeløren'klä' àkalisakr álrorei íce? ***The /a/ in Alrorei is deleted and replaced with /á/ (with rising tone) to indicate "to Alrorei" because they are the same sound and most speakers who speak quickly will not pronounce the unaccented /a/ immediately after the upper-toned /á/. *'Permissive '- append "-kyö" to the end of the combined word. This tense is incompatible with inorganic nouns. **You may get some water. --> may get (obtain) water. --> Obtain•you•may water•some. --> Uneâl•ø•kyö kguä•he. --> Uneâlø'kyö' kguähe. *'Capability' - append "-dya" to the end of the conjoined word. This tense is incompatible with abstract nouns. **I can speak English. --> can speak English. Speak•I•can English. Iräl•å•dya anglo. --> Irälådya kon anglo. *'Imperative '- place the word "jun" before the verb and "-ya" at the end of the combined word. This tense is incompatible with inorganic nouns. **Go clean your room. --> Go Clean room. --> Clean•you•(command) room•your. --> fristüvel•ø•ya eraʃimkö•gø. --> Jun fristüvelø'ya' eraximkögø. *'Transitive' - append "-cä" to the end of the combined word. *'Attempt '- append "-jáþ" to the end of the combined word. *'Hypothetical' - append "-züŋ" to the end of the combined word. *'Desiderative' - append "-gíç" to the end of the combined word. *'Necessitative' - append "-fal" the the end of the combined word. *'Apologetic' - append "-dar" to the end of the combined word. *'Not '- append "-kim" to the end of the combined word including after any otherapplicable tense. **He did not steal the food. --> did not steal food. --| stole no food. --> Steal•he•(past)•not at)•food. --> Vuëskual•ül•te•kim á•xeal. --> Vuëskualülte'kim' áxeal. Although any combination of one primary and any up to all of the other tenses is grammatically possible, it is generally accepted that some combinations cannot be parsed correctly depending on the verb, the pronoun, and the primary tense in question, i.e. mixing either present tense with transitive if the subject is the pronoun "you", etc. Full Example This example shows how a conjoined word conveys meaning as more tenses are applied. As is shown, the use of the full possible seven tenses creates a confusing message. *'Giuel'. --> (to) Kill. *Giuel'ø'. --> You kill. (Tense required!) *Giuelø'te'. --> You kill'ed'. *Giueløte'cä'. --> You were killed. *Giueløtecä'jáþ'. --> You attempted to be killed. *Giueløtecäjáþ'züŋ'. --> You attempting to be killed is a possible scenario. *Giueløtecäjáþzüŋ'gíç'. --> You want the attempt to be killed to be a possible scenario. *Giueløtecäjáþzüŋgíç'dar'. --> You apologize for wanting the attempt to be killed to be a possible scenario. *Giueløtecäjáþzüŋgíçdar'kim'. --> You do not apologize for wanting the attempt to be killed to be a possible scenario. Category:Languages Common Adpositions Galrantior has a set of shorthand adpositions for things that are commonly expressed. Most of these adpositions take the form of just one syllable (usually a vowel) that is almost always toned. As per Galrantior word order, these usually (with a few exceptions) go immediately before the object of the sentence and are attached to the word. */á/ - "at" in the directive sense. When something is directed at something, you use this. Example: Giueløkyökim 'á'ikül. You are not permitted to kill '(at)' him. */à/ - "from", basically acting as an opposite to /á/. Example: Na, sekütêlåte àgaxtivaŋ. I pulled it '''from' (the) container.'' */é/ - "about" or "concerning" would be the closest translation. This can go before any noun whether or not it is the object, only so long as it is not the subject. Example: Gasitåvē é'higrëtigrengå'. I regularly think '''about my broodmates.'' */è/ - "of" in the sense that /ó/ does not cover. Specifically, this one can act as a substitute for possessive noun declensions when otherwise using the possessive declensions could leave a owner's name sitting around a sentence. However, this is an adposition used almost exclusively in informal discourse, as in more formal situations one is expected to name the owner before giving the sentence. For example, the sentence "I found Tigrace's eye." Without /è/, you'd be forced to word it like "Tigrace, I found his eye." (Ítigrace, yalitélåte áserglëstoraga) In formal settings, that is how you are expected to word it. But in other instances, it's fine to say "Yalitélåte áserglëstora 'è'tigrace". */í/ - This one has no true approximate in English, as it can mean many things that are expressed in different ways in English. In its strictest definition, it means "for" and "by". However, it is also used for referring to some things and sometimes is even used to liken one thing to another, among other uses. Examples: **Í'torxäid èkorelxüs! '''By' (the) bones of Korelshüs!'' **''Tyemsäløklä xealhe í'''ce? Can you gather some food '''for me? (íce is one of Galrantior's equivalents to "please", used specifically when pleading and requesting, as opposed to varying forms of "kïha", which are used for asking forgiveness) **Í'''grot ilspatä dëræren... '''Just as we are disciples of Grot and others before us...'' */ì/ - This one is also difficult to explain. It is most often used in conjunction with "there" in the non-positional sense but is also used for situations such as expressing expectation, realization, and disdain. Opòŋzälå 'ì'fegyëni fuátàs. I expect '''that' there will be humor.'' (More accurately translated as something to the effect of "This will be hilarious") Since Galrantior disallows referring to something without a noun or pronoun attached somewhere, this can come in handy. */ó/ - "of". It is important to note that /ó/ is by no means interchangeable with /à/ or /è/; as the former specifically refers to performing an action away from something and the latter is used as a substitute for possessive declensions, whilst /ó/ is only used when an origin is concerned. On a similar note, you cannot substitute the possessive noun declensions (-gå, -gæ, etc) with /ó/, as again, it is only used when an origin is concerned. Example: Gélåte 'ó'frālagäst. I came '''of' Fralagast.'' (Obviously in English you'd use "from" here instead, but as Fralagast is the origin the proper way of expressing originating from that city is by utilizing /ó/) */ò/ - "cause", or "caused by". This is typically used if the verb-subject conjoined word also uses the transitive tense modifier. **''Rekuilåtecä haa ò'''gerülsu. I was bitten '''by the animal.'' ("The" is included in the original sentence because the adposition is not /á/ or /à/) Noun Declensions Nouns decline according to number (in the form of "some", "many", etc as well as pluralization), case (including possessive), and gender (mostly situational; best described below). In the usual Galrantior way of combining the subject and verb into a single word, the noun's declension comes after the noun in the combination and before the tense, making it the third part to the combined word. Possessive Case The possessive case is handled relatively simplistically, by just adding on a phoneme to the noun being modified. Most possessive declensions begin with /g/ and are usually followed by the vowel phoneme associated with that person in standard verb declension. *'My' blood. --> Torlim'gå'. *'Your' blood. --> Torlim'gø'. *'His/Her/Their' blood. --> Torlim'ga'. *'Its' blood. --> Torlim'ŋa'. *'Our' blood. --> Torlim'gæ'. *'Your' blood and my blood. --> Torlim'gę'. Noun Classification Galrants traditionally see things in two ways: in wholes, and in parts. Galrantior separates the two by using a noun classification system. Strictly speaking, Galrantior has a considerably low number of total nouns, as they only give nouns to whole things or entities. For example, there is a Galrantior word for tree, but no such word for root, bark, branch or leaf. Instead, the parts of a tree are simply referred to in several ways as "part(s) of a tree". Here are the different descriptors for "parts" (the word for "tree" is /'fas'/): *'er' - the most general "part" noun, it literally means "part". When combined with tree, er fas, it could mean root, bark, or branch; context will decide which in particular. *'uo' - roughly translates to "spawn of". This is something that comes from the modified noun and is technically a part of the modified noun, but is distinct in that it specifically applies to things that grow on and usually can be easily removed from the modified noun. When combined with tree, uo fas, it most likely means leaf. Although it could also apply to a tree's branch (going strictly by definition), the only trees that Galrants are accustomed to have large, thick branches that are not easy to remove. **/'uo'/ is also used to classify a river, as it is spawned from a lake and pours into a sea. *'du' and ra - these roughly mean "the seed of", pretty much meaning "this will eventually grow to become (the modified noun)". The distinction between the two is that du is (usually) inorganic and ra is organic. In the case of most plants, du is used even though plants are usually otherwise gendered as organic. When combined with tree, du fas, it means the seed of a tree. This is also used for children: ra ikülep or ius ra. One of the exceptions to the whole/part divide concerns the parts of an animal; Galrantior has a separate word for person, body, arm, leg, wing, tail, belly, breast, head, neck, hand, etc rather than a word for "person" and various er ikülep. It is believed that Galrantior has these nouns for the various parts because early doctors in the days of the Drulaktor Hegemony would otherwise have trouble figuring out exactly which limb was in pain in cases where patients couldn't point to said limb (e.g. if their arms were gone). An important thing to note is that only whole nouns can be considered organic; part nouns are strictly inorganic. Verb Modification MG has a somewhat unique feature involving the modification of verbs to indicate a change in mood that cannot be conveyed with the six non-primary tenses. Via changes in tone, or occasionally a total vowel shift or even an additional phoneme, a verb can change from conveying a basic action to conveying a complex action, or a basic action with an additional mood. Many of the most common verbs in Galrantior can change to different forms like this; unfortunately, such transformations are rarely uniform between the different verbs. Examples of some modular verbs: *to speak - iräl **to speak to - irál **to be spoken to - iràl **to speak to nobody in particular - irâl Tones As noted, Galrantior is a tonal language. It uses rising tone, falling tone, top tone, bottom tone, dipping tone, arching tone, and focal vowel. Although the Galrantior script form has its own ways to indicate each tone, the tones will be indicated through the Latinized transcriptions via the use of diacritics. Although the tones generally do carry meaning with them, some verbs seem to use them with little to no tonal correlation whatsoever. This, like many of MG's many quirks, is likely a result of the merging of LHD and RN, the latter of which had an extremely diverse and complex tonal system whilst the former of which only used rising and falling tone. This oddity is especially notable in many MG verbs, where you will find many seemingly-randomly placed tones; it is not quite so prevalent with nouns (to which the tonal system primarily applies) but there are a few exceptions. Rising and Falling Rising tone and falling tone are usually directly linked together in that switching the two in a word when both could be applicable reverses the word's meaning, effectively giving the opposite meaning; however, this only applies when the difference between the opposites are measurable (i.e. the difference between big and small). The pronunciations are, as the name implies, rising and falling. Rising is indicated with an acute (á é í ó ú) while falling is indicated with a grave (à è ì ò ù). Rising and falling tone are also used when superlatives are involved, via the addition of either /é/ or /è/, for example, "vigla", meaning "good", becomes "great" when you add /é/ (vigla'é'), and becomes "less than good" (also an alternative for "bad" but "bad" also has its own word) when you add /è/ (vigla'è'). Examples of rising and falling: *Rising and falling are the difference between "to" and "from" in the directive sense. To indicate an action being directed at something, or an object traveling to or from another object or place, you add either /á/ (to) or /à/ (from) as a prefix to the noun being directed to or from. This is notably an exception to the "measurable difference" rule, remaining only because it is a relic from Middle Drulaktior. (The use of /á/ and /à/ only apply when the object is of either the organic or inorganic gender; objects of the abstract gender use a separate method to indicate direction, as noted above under verb tenses) **I gave to him some food. --> Ikilåte xealhe áikül. *The difference between "big" and "small" is kr'á'''ne (big) and kr'à'ne (small). Top and Bottom '''Top tone' and bottom tone are also linked together, and like rising and falling, they indicate opposites when used side-by-side. What separates these tones from rising and falling is that the difference between the two opposites is not quite measurable (i.e. the difference between water and ice, which are treated as opposites in Galrantior). Top tone is pronounced at the highest volume the individual can utter, while bottom tone is at the lowest pitch the individual can manage. Top is indicated with macrons (ā ē ī ō ū) whereas bottom is indicated by underlining the vowels (a e i o u). Which opposite is given which tone is more or less arbitrary, but the perceived "worse" of the two or the "not in agreement with X" (when concerning philosophies) usually gets the bottom tone. Top and bottom are also used when describing the difference between two abstract nouns that are opposites, since technically the difference between two abstract nouns would be immeasurable. Also like rising and falling, top and bottom are used for superlatives as well, notably the "best" and "worst" forms of a superlative. The same letter is modified as either /ē/ or /e/. Using the same example of "vigla" (good), you can change it to mean "positively fantastic" by adding /ē/ (vigla'ē') or "not very good at all" by adding /e/ (vigla'e'). Examples of top and bottom: *As noted, water and ice are treated as opposites. The diacritic-free word "kgua" refers to water as the chemical, while kguā refers to water in its liquid form; kgua refers to ice. *Another usage of the two tones is when referring to a philosophy. For example, the philosophy of abiding by Scaladius's tenets is given the word "skalātur". Those philosophies that directly go against Scaladius's tenets are given the word "skalatur". **It should be noted to anyone who studies Galrantior: do not conflate /a/ and /å/, for they indicate completely different meanings (one is bottom tone, the other is the verb conjugation referring to oneself i.e. "I action"). The difference between the two is that /å/ is pronounced like a very thick /a/, sounding roughly like the "oa" in the word "coal"; bottom tone /a/ is just a very low-pitch long-/a/ sound. Arching and Dipping Arching tone and dipping tone are notably the only pair of the seven tones that are not exclusively linked, unlike rising/falling or top/bottom. There are a few cases when they are linked, but more often than not, their use side-by-side can produce two words with unrelated meanings. The few instances in which they are linked together is when speaking in "quick" form, when one wishes to indicate when something went from "bad to good to bad", or when something went "good to bad to good", although this is a system in the language that is rarely if ever used. It is a relic of Old Drulaktior in which soldiers would describe a battle they'd fought or an action they'd carried out, along with the use of the other tones listed here for similar reasons; and even then, it was rarely used. It's safe to say that arching and dipping usually don't have any direct connection whatsoever (most Galrantior teachers teach children to "always assume it isn't quick-form"). As could be expected, arching tone is indicated with circumflexes (â ê î ô û) while dipping tone is indicated with carons (ǎ ě ǐ ǒ ǔ). Focal Vowel Focal vowel is the one "orphaned" tone of the seven tones in Galrantior, indicated with a diaeresis (ä ë ï ö ü). Since it has no tonal counterpart, it is instead used to indicate mood or form. It is pronounced by putting emphasis on the vowel that is outed as the focal vowel. Galrantior only allows one focal vowel for each word. Although this sounds like the speaker/writer is then free to apply focal vowels wherever they'd like, focal vowels are actually set-in-stone and only added on with certain declensions or conjugations. For example, the word "sänʃea" (store) can only have the first /a/ be a focal vowel. Many words with focal vowels do not have any alternative word, such as "sänʃea"; sanʃea or sanʃëa or sanʃeä are not accepted, although this mostly affects writing since any native speaker can realize you mean "store" since the word has no alternative. The "no alternative" for many words was likely caused by the merging of LHD and Republic Nirasoi; the latter which had a fluid focal vowel system whilst the former lacked any such system, and many nouns were taken from LHD ("sänʃea" included). It should be noted that the "only one focal vowel per word" rule does not apply when conjugating "he/she" or when applying the "request" or "permission" tense to a conjoined word. Gender The language gives gender to its nouns, but not based on sexual dimorphism; instead, the divide is based on the metaphysical state of the noun. Nouns are either organic (any organism, including people; objects made of organic materials are categorized as inorganic), inorganic (any object that is tangible but not organic, such as a metal bar; parts of organisms, such as an arm or a leg, are also treated as inorganic), or abstract (any object that is not tangible by any means). The genders are applied in the form of determiners (equivalents to "the") and pluralization of the noun in question, with a small number of verbs also being slightly changed based on the noun's gender. The advantage of this gender system is that nouns are not set-in-stone as one gender; any gender can be freely applied to any noun. This allows for the speaker or writer to impart extra information with the mere change of gender. For example, the word for species, gerilg, can refer to an actual species or the concept of species in general. To refer to an actual species, one would say "haa gerilg" and pluralize as "gerilgren", since the actual species is organic; to refer to the concept of species, one would say "kon gerilg" and pluralize as "gerilgdel" since the concept of species and taxonomy in general is abstract. The pitfall to be avoided here is to not use the wrong gender lest you confuse others. Galrantior gender thus is not entirely intertwined with the language's vocabulary, and is instead used as a sort of classification system that can have a heavy impact on how certain sentences are worded. The gender that one applies to a noun affects the following: *Which "the" is to be used (haa/lir/kon) *How a noun is pluralized, and in irregular cases, how a noun declines in other ways **Notably, the gender of a noun can change how one would decline the noun to indicate "some noun" in the numerical sense: being abstract means you must use "-le" instead of "-he" to indicate this, since you can't normally have multiples of an abstract but you can have more of an abstract. (Similarly to how, in English, you can have "some news" but not "a few news") *Whether or not you can use /á/ (to) or /à/ (from) as prepositions; you can only do this with organic or inorganic nouns, whereas with abstract nouns you are required to use "si" (meaning "not directed anywhere") instead and ''you are expected to also use the abstract "the" (unlike organic or inorganic, for which you do not use the corresponding "the" when the object is being directed at or away from) *How certain verbs and tenses are pronounced when used in a conjoined word referring to the subject; for example, abstract nouns cannot physically request or permit, and so they utilize a slightly different pronunciation ("-kuë" and "-kyù" instead of the normal "-klä" and "-kyö", respectively) to indicate the difference. **In another example, inorganic nouns are not even allowed to request or permit, forcing Galrant writers to get creative with some descriptions *Certain verbs can only apply to a specific gender, as they would be logically incompatible with any other gender. For example, "think" can only be applied to organic nouns, "break" in the physical sense can only be applied to inorganic nouns, and "erase" in the philosophical sense (i.e. ''the concept was erased from history) can only apply to abstract nouns. *Certain verbs change based on gender, and although the number of such verbs are few, most are very commonly used. The most obvious example would be "be", be/is/are/am. In Galrantior, the word actually means "identify", but the closest English use is "be". If the modified noun is organic, the word for "be/identify" is /'po'/. If inorganic, the word is /'pel'/. If abstract, the word is /'pua'/. The following lists the specifics of each gender and what each can and cannot accomplish: *'Organic': the = haa; pluralization nounren **Organic does not have any restrictions apart from being reserved for living organisms. Using organic where it normally would not be used is a common source of confusion between Galrants. **Exclusive verbs: think, know, hope, interpret and more *'Inorganic': the = lir; pluralization nounid **Inorganic cannot use the request or permission verb tenses, and no pronoun other than "it" ("na") can be treated as inorganic. **Parts of otherwise organic nouns, such as limbs or organs, are treated as inorganic. **Exclusive verbs: break, materialize, lie (to lie idly) and more *'Abstract': the = kon; pluralization noundel **Abstract is forced to utilize different methods for the request and permission verb tenses and also is logically incompatible with a sizable number of adpositions. Although any pronoun except "you and I" can be treated as abstract, doing so will often prematurely give others an impression of yourself. **Exclusive verbs: erase, enter (into public conscience), stagnate and more Anomalies Galrantior has a good many words that quite simply do not act like regular words in the language, as in, they don't follow the grammar as most words would. These are called anomalies. Many anomalies are common words used in everyday speech. *'ëg' - This word's best translation is "current", as in "here and now", but even that's oversimplifying things a little. As you can expect, you can use it for both "here" and "now" (not always both at once), and it can also be used to mean "modern" among other things. It is an anomaly because you are allowed to stick it anywhere in a sentence so long as it comes after the conjoined word, and its meaning can change based on where you place it. (The native name for MG, klimsanyor ëg rekli, roughly translates to "language of Klimsan of modern time" but if you move the ëg to after rekli, the meaning becomes "language of Klimsan right now") *'ölg' - This word is ëg's brother, roughly meaning "other" or "another" but cannot always be used as "another" is used in English. It is an anomaly for the same reasons as ëg. This word is also used to express "there" in the positional sense. (Saying klimsanyor ölg rekli roughly means "language of Klimsan of another time") *'fegyë' - "There" in the non-positional sense. ("I believe there will be cake" vs "The cake will be set over there") It is an anomaly because you are allowed to tack on verb tenses (fegyëni for "there will (be)", for example) as if it were the subject of the sentence, and some adpositions are compatible with it (namely /ì/). *'si' - As explained above, this word roughly means "not directed anywhere". Besides its grammatical use, however, it provides a good shorthand of saying something is nonsensical. It is considered an anomaly (at least outside of its grammatical use) because, like ëg and ölg, you can stick it anywhere. *'kie' - This word is reserved specifically for likening one thing to another. For example, to say "Treat my people as you would your own", it'd be "Jun tyuløya áiküleprengå kie gø". It is considered an anomaly because unlike most adpositions, this one can mutate words for the sake of comparison (notice how using kie allowed the sentence to shorten áiküleprengø to simply gø; this is because the comparison was already laid out with áiküleprengå, and kie indicates that a comparison is being made). Vocabulary Example text The following is a (rather sloppy) transcription of a popular poem recited amongst Galrants, with its roots in the Drulaktor Hegemony of old. Some variations of the "Sàlxrës Ídrulaktorren" (the Drulaktor anthem, translated as "Ballad for/of the Winged Ones") contain a section built around this poem. This transcription is written traditionally, from bottom-to-top, left-to-right (although everything is read from left to right) and lacks any spaces. The text contains a few errors, caused by the writer accidentally writing a syllable or two incorrectly. (A properly-scanned image will come eventually) Pomæ uo söktærengæ Iktaelülte áikto ralgrotëlen Ismanøtâv sge tlërasren Ue, grotolø nämzegæ Ya, disfiløtâv kiväs krev Devtälsenni selke näg áløg rëhev Ígrot ilspatä dëræren Pomå drulaktor sen Fexolå kon si desälkèuâm ilikülren saca Ue, nasmalø po ralcæ Ya, fexoløni ëg elsöm We are spawned from our ancestors They fought Ikto with bravery You should fear that they live through us If you deny our purity of spirit Then you should seek a new sovereignty One that will handle you well enough By the grace of Grot and others before me, I am a Drulaktor I serve the community and those in need If you want to live amongst us, Then you will also serve from now to no end Other Text This section is here to display how Galrantior looks on the whole. Glosses will eventually be provided. The following text here was written to be a sarcastic welcome to visitors on Ultimate Ridley's deviantART page, including pre-installed glosses of (intentionally) poor quality. It also has proper translations into Rekualn and Rahturior. 'Nia ilkäuàmlas álerkësgå! Inpàŋür, retìløsekim áçyaceryë, rålgésuäve fàlretnyàgø, gíj ìfegyëni vígläsyi! Retnyó sen ígasegfrïgzüŋ, puanèkim.' Orèløsezüŋ, "Èçyaceryë yug gesuìl?" Vig... si xàk nå! Iul, irálåtâv áløg éçyaceryë ìfegyënikim sèlcäŋ ue retïnvùløjáþ ralretinvä ógügəl. Íaséløte álerkësgå, kïgnu àce! Hello andwelcome to profile my! Probable, speak know you not to message this, not with significance native language your, but there will be goodness! Language one for know human possibly, abstract identify it not. Ask of confusion you are currently possibly, "Of message this what make importance?" Insert well... not directed anywhere abstract thing zero! Also, tell I should to you about message this there will be not worthy thing if translate you try to with translator of Google. For done to the benefit of see you did to profile my, gratitude from I! Hello and welcome to my profile! You probably do not understand this, regardless of your native language, but that's fine! This is not any language a human would know. You may be asking, "What's the point of this message?" Well... nothing! I should also let you know that putting this into Google Translate will get you nothing. Thank you for visiting my profile! Category:Languages